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Akron
Beacon Journal
Priorities
IRS
May 16, 2013
Steven
Miller took the fall. On
Wednesday, President Obama received the resignation of the acting
commissioner
of the Internal Revenue Service in the wake of word about the agency
acting egregiously
in targeting tea party and other conservative groups for heightened
scrutiny.
Today, Miller will feel the heat as he appears before the House Ways
and Means
Committee.
No
doubt lawmakers will explore why
Miller in early 2012, serving as deputy IRS commissioner, told
Republican
senators that the agency wasn’t singling out such groups. Documents now
show
that he was aware of the problem.
Lois
Lerner, the head of the office
overseeing tax-exempt organizations, also has fudged on when she knew.
Such
lapses suggest the management deficiencies at the agency identified in
the
report of the IRS inspector general released this week. At one point,
Lerner
thought she had put a stop to the practice. Yet the report found she
and others
did not follow up sufficiently.
Eric
Holder, the attorney general,
has pledged an aggressive investigation. Such a course is required. The
safe
bet is, Republican lawmakers will examine under every rock. What
shouldn’t be
missed is that the IRS has been positioned more effectively since the
dark
Nixon years. The commissioner of the agency as conservatives came under
close
watch was an appointee of George W. Bush. So there are protections
against
partisanship.
John
Boehner, the House speaker,
leaped ahead in asking: Who will go to jail? His question actually
invites the
warning: Don’t lose sight of the larger trouble. No question, IRS
officials put
at risk what are essential: the integrity and credibility of the
agency. Yet
the agency also faced a huge task, processing the avalanche of groups
seeking
tax-exempt status, the door opened by the U.S. Supreme Court in its
Citizens
United ruling.
The
tax-exempt status isn’t so much
about a tax break. It really involves groups gaining the ability to
engage in
“social welfare” activities and to a lesser extent the rough-and-tumble
of
elections — without having to reveal donor lists. So it makes sense for
the IRS
to look closely. It just must be done fairly, preserving political
neutrality.
Read
the rest of the article at the
Akron Beacon Journal
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